Remembering an old-fashioned business reporter

Marketwatch media columnist Jon Friedman writes Friday about former colleague Julie Rannazzisi, who died five years ago today and covered the stock market as New York bureau chief.

Friedman writes that Rannazzisi would have abhorred today’s state of business journalism, where scoops have less importance because new media forms have overtaken daily newspapers.

He writes, “When I think about the explosion of news and information on the collapse of Wall Street, the sordid ways of Bernard Madoff and the explosion of interest in the stock market, I think of Julie.

“She would have loved to cover this upheaval. She would have tried to make sense of the insanity and help readers understand what the hell is going on.

“One of Julie’s gifts as a reporter was her skepticism. She had little patience for the kind of hype that is now a way of life in the stock market. She basically asked one question when she assessed a public company’s position and prospects: What is its stock doing?

“Julie would echo the cold, hard wisdom of football coach Bill Parcells. He used to say: ‘You are what your record says you are.'”

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